ALBIUS TIBULLUS (47 BC)

Roman poet, the second in the classical sequence of great Latin writers of elegiacs that begins with Cornelius Gallus and continues through Tibullus and Sextus Propertius to Ovid.
Quintilian considered Tibullus to be the finest of them all.

Apart from his own poems, the only sources for the life of Tibullus are a few references in ancient writers and an extremely short Vita of doubtful authority.

He was of equestrian rank (according to the Vita) and inherited an estate but seems to have lost most of it in 41 BC when Mark Antony and Octavian confiscated land for their soldiers (Virgil, Propertius and Horace suffered in the same way).

As a young man Tibullus won the friendship and patronage of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus the statesman soldier and man of letters and became a prominent member of Messalla´s literary circles. This circle, unlike that of Gaius Maecenas, kept itself aloof from the court of Augustus whom Tibullus does not even mention in his poems.

Tibullus seems to have divided his time between Rome and his countru estate strongly preferring the later.
The Albius addressed by Horace in Odes, 1, 33 and Epistles, i, 4, is generally identified with Tibullus.

Tibullus´ first important love affair, the main subject of Book i of his poems, was with the woman whom he calls Delia but whose real name, according to Apuleius was Plania. It is impossible to give an exact account of their intimacy, as the poems about her are not arranged chronologically: sometimes he presents her as unmarried, sometimes as having a husband (unless the term conjux is meant to mean protector). It is clear that Tibullus took advantage of the husband´s absence on military service in Cilicia to establish his relationship with Delia and that this relationship was carried on clandestinely after the soldier´s return. Tibullus ultimately discovered that Delia was receiving other lovers as well as himself. Then after fruitless protests he ceased to pursue her.

In book ii of his poems Delia´s place is taken by Nemesis (also a fictious name). This Nemesis was a courtesan of the higher class with several lovers. Though he complains bitterly of her rapacity and hardheartedness Tibullus seems to have remained subjugated to her for the rest of his life. 

He is known to have died young very shortly after Virgil (19 BC).
Ovid commemorated his death in his Amores (iii, 9).

The character of Tibullus, as reflected in his poems, is an amiable one.
He was a man of generous impulses and a gentle, unselfish disposition, loyal to his friends, and constant to his mistresses (more than they deserved).
His tenderness toward women is enhanced by a refinement and delicacy rare among the ancients.

The works of Tibullus as they have survived form part of what is generally known as the Corpus Tibullianum, a collection of poetry that seems most probably to have been deliberately put together to represent the work of Messalla´s circle.
The first two books of the collection undoubtedly represent the work of Tibullus.
Book i contains the poems inspired by Delia as well as three elegies addressed to Marathus, a beautiful boy.
Book ii is devoted to the liaison with Nemesis and also contains one of Tibullus´ most characteristic and delightful poems, the description of a country festival.
The rest of the Corpus Tibullianum forms one book in the manuscripts but 15th-century Italian scholars divided it into books iii and iv.
An unidentified poet who calls himself Lygdamus wrote the cultivated but undistinguished poems, six in number, of book iii.
The poems in book iv are by two other writers, though poems 2-6 are thought to be by Tibullus, as are 13 and 14.
The whole cycle forms a unique and charming document for the literary life of Augustan Rome.